Ma Liangxing, head coach of the Chinese women's soccer team, will be resigning, local media reported on Tuesday.

Ma, who has been with the national squad since its inception in 2006, disappeared from the training base ahead of the Four Nations tournament in South China's Guangzhou late January, citing a heart problem and was being treated by doctors in his hometown of Shanghai.

"It is improper to leave the post for a national head coach just ahead of an important tournament," a key official with the CFA (Chinese Football Association) was quoted as saying in the China Sports Daily on Tuesday, hinting Ma had pretended to be sick.

"If this happened on World Cup or Olympic occasions, how should the team get through?" he added.

The embattled coach has been on the hot seat since the women's team lost to DPR Korea in the semifinals at the Doha Asian Games last December, failing to complete the top two-place bottom line the CFA had expected beforehand.

Under constant pressure from the CFA for better results and facing the possibility of being fired, a moody Ma chose to remain absent from the sideline at this crucial moment with just six months to go before the women's World Cup in China, the report said.

There is a possibility that Ma will be replaced by Wang Haiming, the China assistant coach who handled the team in the Ma’s absence.

Wang, who steered the team to a second place finish at the Four Nations tourney, has been recognized by the CFA and it is reported that he will be assuming the head coaching duties if the women's team produces a good result at the annual Algarve Cup starting on March 7 in Portugal.

The 49-year-old Wang, however, downplayed the coaching prospects.

"The team's performance will be affected by the absence of head coach, I hope the CFA will deal with the problem as soon as possible. The situation is abnormal (for a squad without a head coach)," he said after the team's 2-1 friendly match win over Russia at Southwest China's Guizhou on February 8.

"Now I’m just trying to prepare a good team for the next coach. As for my coaching job, I will be waiting for CFA's orders."

The team's German advisor Eckhard Krautzun is also being considered for the job.

Since finishing second to the United States in the 1999 World Cup, the Chinese women, known as the "Steel Roses," have failed to return to such heights in international competitions.

(Xinhua News Agency February 28, 2007)